Across the Watershed - Winter 2001

Last year will be remembered for the popularization of two previously obscure and under-appreciated political concepts, both of which offer significant potential to alter the future of life on earth.. The first, of course, is the dimpled chad. The second is the increasing frequency with which the word "watershed" is being used in the context of an emerging geopolitical rubric in the state of New Jersey. In the last twelve months, the concept of watershed management has matured from its roots as an organizational and administrative construct within the NJDEP to become the controversial centerpiece of Governor Whitman's water quality regulatory initiative. The good news is that the undeniable interrelationship between a watershed and the quality of life it affords for all of its stakeholders has at long last received the recognition it deserves from land-use policy-makers.

The bad news, though, is that said policy-makers include our shadow governors in the building lobby, who regard watershed-thinking as a major threat to their goal of achieving 100% statewide impervious coverage in the shortest possible time and at the highest possible return on investment. The statewide Residential Site Improvement Standards, which were drafted by the builders' lobby a few years ago, make no provision for regional environmental and geographic diversity within the state. Legislation to exempt the Great Swamp Watershed from these restrictive standards was reintroduced in June. Originally introduced in 1998, the Senate and Assembly bills expired at the end of the last session. The current Senate and Assembly bills both reside in their respective Environmental committees.

Last year in this space we noted that a Development Impact Fee bill had been passed by the Senate. This proposal would impose more accountability on developers for the off-site consequences of overbuilding; unfortunately, the counterpart bill in the Assembly lapsed at the end of the legislative session. Although the bill has been reintroduced in the Assembly in the current session, it has not yet moved out of committee.

Also reintroduced early this year were bills that would authorize municipalities to adopt Timed Growth ordinances for the purpose of controlling the rate of development within their jurisdictions. As a result of a recent test case, the courts determined that timed growth ordinances are not allowable under state law as currently written. The bills to remedy this shortcoming are also stalled in committee.

Moving more rapidly and with much less commotion than its predecessors is a Time of Decision bill that would require municipalities to issue zoning permits within seven business days. Although passage of this bill in some form had been expected, agreement as to the number of days to be allowed for the decision could not be reached in the last session. The seven-day Time of Decision bill was passed by the Assembly in June, and a similar bill introduced in the Senate in November is receiving priority attention in committee.

In the wake of the drought of 1999 and Hurricane Floyd, a number of bills concerning the public water supply have been introduced, most of which deal primarily with management and distribution issues. The water utility companies will explain that their problems last year were all weather-related, but we're starting to wonder if there's more to the story than that. Judging from the panicky response of a major NJ water supplier to at least one of these proposals, those on the supply side are beginning to recognize that water is well on its way to becoming a scarce commodity in this state - and that when the water crisis comes, it will be one of quantity rather than quality, and will last indefinitely. Water rationing, of course, will be simply another in the list of NJ's non-sustainable growth policies for us to contemplate while we're stuck in traffic on some 12-lane highway, and the water companies and the builders will blame it all on the consumer by reminding us that they are only providing what the market demands.

We can expect to get the same kind of crocodile tears from the NJ quarry industry as it awakens to the realization that the raw materials of construction do not come from bottomless pits. Bills now pending in Trenton would exempt quarries from local zoning because of the growing scarcity of suitable (read low cost) and conveniently located (again, read low cost) sources of quarry materials in NJ.

George Cassa is GSWA's Secretary.

Home | Newsletters | Previous | Next